crafting

May 06, 2008

I love my new mesh market bags so much I just had to post about them. They fit right in my purse so I can always have one on hand for quick trips to the store. For the big shopping days they are the perfect alternative to those plastic produce bags on the big rolls. Josh wanted to use them for foraging but I told him no way. Bags this cute have to stay dirt-free as long as possible :)

I bought them (on Earth Day, no less!) from a new Etsy shop called Zummi, and I got to be her first customer--yippeee! I don't know why that made my day, but it did. It's fun to discover things. And I'm not the only one who did apparently because she is sold clean out of bags at the moment. It's nice to know that I won't be the only one at the store with a head of Romaine tucked into a "fashion" bag--hee!

May 03, 2008

Like a lot of families these days, we are everyday cloth napkin users. It's great for the environment and for our home economy, and so cute too. What's not to love? The regular sized ones are cumbersome for small hands, so I made these junior-size napkins for Ivo and his friends. They can even double as a little placemat for nibbly snacks that don't really need their own plate. I didn't expect him to be too excited about napkins, but he surprised me with a big smile and said, "Mama you made these for me? Wow Mama thank you so much. I love them." I think sometimes just having something little, and special, and your very own can be so nice, even if it is just a napkin.

March 19, 2008

We've been doing our spring cleaning this week, which is one time in the year that I am very thankful to be living in an apartment. No yard work, no outside work at all, and then as if by magic, beautiful healthy flowers, green, manicured grass, tidy shrubbery and hanging baskets just appear. Oh, wait, it isn't magic after all. We do pay for it when we write our rent check every month. But still, it's pretty painless and the building managers go way over and above any of the standards I would have for my own house. Josh is so looking forward to getting a house once he graduates and we get re-settled in a new place, but I could happily live this way for a while. So much less work! Our spring cleaning consists of opening the windows, re-arranging all the furniture, lots of vacuuming, scrubbing and dusting those little forgotten corners (how can a 1,000 sf apartment have so many forgotten corners!) and just adding some little spring spruce-ups.

These new junk-hiding curtains were a little spruce-up project for the kitchen. The old ones were a bright African inspired print of red, green, black, yellow, and white, so this pale Amy Butler floral print made a huge difference in our tiny little galley kitchen.

I also cleared off our kitchen bulletin board which we usually use to hang postcards and photos and artwork and gave it a little Easter egg theme. Ivo loved it and has spent many moments looking at the eggs. The little shelf is to hold objects that sort of relate to the theme, in this case eggs, but we haven't decorated any yet. Can you tell I made the Easter egg sign with those block-style Stockmar crayons we bought last fall? My handwriting is usually a little nicer than that, but those crayons are clumsy for writing. They do last a long time though.

And one more picture of the nature table, which Ivo has joyfully participated in creating and maintaining. In the foreground of the picture is his St. Patrick's Day present, a shamrock, in a pot painted for him by my awesome friend Molly, and way in the back is our eggshell and moss garden that we copied from The Little Nest. In between are two little clay nests that we made together, pinch-pot style. One holds a pompom bird named Quinn Bird that Ivo made a few months ago and has cherished ever since. In the other is "tiny Wilbur" (borrowed from our Pig Mania game) and an acorn cap ("Wilbur's pillow"). And I also noticed that Ivo re-arranged the two brown bunnies so they are kissing. Sweet!

February 08, 2008

If you wondered where it is all of those scraps are coming from, the ones I talked about re-using for Wednesday's project, many of them are coming from these birthday banners I have been making for family and friends. Have you ever noticed how many people have February birthdays? I mean besides the Presidents who shall remain nameless, only because I'm not 100% positive that it's Lincoln (*swoon*) and Washington (heh, wooden teeth--yikes!). In our family it's Papa/Josh, our nephew Quinn, My Grampa, Uncle Jason, Uncle Jack, and three little friends, who will all be turning three. I think I may have forgotten a few . . . apologies!! Anyway, I think February must be the best month of all for a birthday. Something festive to look forward to during a sort of "blah!" time of year. And aren't these banners festive:

They are made on double-sided cardstock, too. So they can be hung in mid air--like suspended over one of those super-wide doorways or something--and look pretty from each direction. Our apartment doesn't really have anywhere to display them, though, except above Ivo's "deli". So he thinks it's his birthday. Is that such a crime? nah.

Here's a funny Ivo quote: I was giving him a bath and said, "Ivo you have the cutest litte belly. It is just adorable." He thought for a minute and then said, "Mama, your belly is NOT cute. It is big and wavy. It is BEAUTIFUL." big, wavy, beautiful? Too bad it's not my hair he's talking about! But I'll take it anyway :)

February 06, 2008

I am so happy to finally have a chance to make this blog post! What a crazy couple of days we've had. And by the way, THANK YOU for every kind and encouraging word. I know I am behind on answering emails but I really appreciate every thought sent my way. And I hope everyone who reads this will scroll down to the bottom of this post and take a minute to enter my giveaway drawing. I have four little cheerful bundles ready to brighten the day of some faraway friends. Each little package includes a Scrap Happy Recycled Stationery Kit (what's that, you ask? Just keep reading!), some pretty clothespins as seen here (you know, for your kitchen and other clippy needs), and some other assorted goodies to surprise and delight. If you've never left a comment on my blog before, now is a good day :) It's fun to see who's out there, and where, and I am more than happy to ship overseas, so don't be shy! I'll leave the comments open until next Wednesday, and draw the names on Thursday (Valentine's Day). Don't forget to leave your email so I can tell ya that you won. Your email will only be visable to me and I promise not to spam ya'll.

Now, what I have been wanting to share for a few days . . . something cute and fun that I hope you will enjoy. . .

Over the years I have gotten so many free patterns and crafty lessons from the internet and more specifically, from other blogs, and today I am going to try my hand at making a craft tutorial to share. Technical writing is not my specialty, as you will see, but luckily I think I was able to snap enough pictures that the basic instructions should be pretty easy to follow. This project has a difficulty rating of . . . not difficult at all. And the total expense should be about a dollar well spent at the scrapbook paper shop ( a lovely way to spend a winter's hour, let me tell you!)

Okay, here goes the craft tutorial . . .

Scrap Happy Recycled Stationery Kit

This project consists of a paper wallet that holds re-usable scraps of paper for jotting down quick notes and shopping lists. When your wallet gets too old to use, it can become the scrap paper for the next one--clever :)

Whatever scrap paper you have on hand—anything headed for the recycling bin, but should have at least one side with no print.

Tools needed: paper trimmer or scissors and ruler, nail or awl

Step 1: Cut the big piece of cardstock to 10x 6 inch rectangle.

Step 2: Fold it exactly in half as shown below. The outside of the wallet is shown face up here.

Step 3: Now measure 1 ¾ inches from each of the short ends, and fold again. What you have now should look like the picture below. There are three creases in all.

Step 4: Cut two circles from the coordinating cardstock, mine here are 1 ½ inches across and 1 ¼ inches across. It doesn’t need to be exact. Use the nail to poke a hole in the center of each circle, and in one side of the paper wallet, about 3 ½ inches from the center crease.

Step 5: Stick about 2 inches of the string through the hole in the wallet, then poke the brad through the small circle, then the bigger circle, and then the wallet with the string sandwiched between the wallet and the bigger circle. Fasten the brad down tightly.

Step 6: Stitch up both sides of the wallet as shown, or use tape if you like.

Step 7: Now fill your wallet with scraps of paper and you are done! You can leave love notes or make your grocery list on your own recycled paper. Too cute!!

Now don't forget to leave a comment so you can win a funky cute stationery kit like this one! And yours will be filled with all of my best most beautiful scraps, with hand stamping and other fun details.

February 04, 2008

I didn't intend to leave such a negative-sounding post up on the front page for so long. You know how it goes though, some weeks just don't seem very bloggable! And last week was one of them. Honestly though, we all recovered just fine from the field trip debacle and I am in such gratitude for all of your kind words of support! It's so nice to know that I'm not among fairweather friends here. Here's a peek at some new fun and crafty additions to the shop, and I will be back tomorrow to give a real post that may actually contain something useful to you, and also announce another bloggy giveaway. Something to keep the February Funk at bay! (Did you know that groundhog saw his shadow by the way? rats!)

Here are some sweet new gnomes . . . aren't they fancy with their little blanket stitched coats and hats? *sold*

January 07, 2008

These coasters were inspired by the ones from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing. The sewing is kind of wonky (stitching through so many layers of fabric) but they came out looking pretty cute. They are a gift for someone very special who I know reads this blog, so it would probably be completely tacky to mention that they only took an hour to make from start to finish. Which means my hand embroidery is picking up speed. woo-hoo!

Ivo has a new favorite story, this little barnyard scene is a hint:

It's Charlotte's Web! We watched the movie (the 2006 version with Dakota Fanning as Fern) during our holiday travels and it really touched a place in Ivo's heart. We were able borrow the DVD from the library and we've seen it several times by now. To expand on his interest--and unglue him from the TV-- Josh bought him this barnyard playset by Schylling that just happened to include a Templeton rat. An old Halloween spider is our Charlotte, but Ivo lost her somewhere in the house. So most of the storylines revolve around looking for her. And they are peppered with phrases culled from the movie and from all of our recent travelling, like, "Salutations!" "I drink their blood." "Enter your five digit code" and "Coming soon to DVD!" and my favorite, sung sweet and low, "It's not that unusual/when everything is beautiful/It's just another ordinary miracle today." That last one is sung in the closing credits by Sarah McLachlan, making Ivo positively *swoon*.

And the best part is that I have a new nickname around the house. Ivo likes to call me "Wilbur". He says it's because I'm cute. hmph.

January 05, 2008

I didn't give up on my blog, just took a long vacation from the computer. It was nice and I probably needed it. I hope you all had very happy holidays! We had a lovely family Christmas celebration, with the highlights being Santa's visit and a big turkey dinner. Ivo asked Santa for a sewing machine like mine and I did not even have anything to do with him coming up with that idea. Santa filled his stocking and gave him a pink plastic battery powered sewing machine. He was so thrilled. He said, "Mom it's even real!" Christmas was followed by a trip to Wisconsin to visit family and help Josh's mom move, and one other event that . . . hmmm. . . I just can't seem to remember what is was . . . oh that's right! I turned 30 on January 2. So I am officially a grown-up. Well howdy do.

Whenever I take a long blog break it takes me a little while to get back into the swing. So I'll just post a few pictures from the past week or so.

Here's what greeted Ivo on Christmas morning . . .

Not very waldorf now, is it? LOL. So much fun, though. What a perfect choice for our carwash-loving kiddo. And it rolls back into a little suitcase for storage. Josh, Ivo and I have spent a lot of time in the carwash lately, where we read books or play games. It's like having a den. Thanks Grandpa Mark :)

Ivo doing a happy dance . . .

And some new kids for the shop . . .

I'm still working on some new designs to hopefully be added this week. I thought with Josh being home during the winter break that I would have all this time to work in my studio . . . what was I thinking?? It never seems to go that way! But we were busy doing happy, together things and catching up on family and home. Good priorities there, but I cannot wait to hole up in my own space and put the pedal to the metal again (and that would be my sewing machine pedal!)